This document contains an artist's reflections on experimenting with a film camera to capture images in a natural way. They discuss several photos in terms of composition, lighting, exposure, and technical camera settings. The artist was able to experiment with features like ISO, exposure, focal length, and focus. Their aim was to capture fleeting moments of light and life through creative angles and compositions. However, some photos suffered from exposure or focus issues that they hope to improve on next time.

1. EXPERIMENTING
WITH MEDIA
FILM CAMERA

3. One of the films I shot
was over-exposed. I
used Photoshop to
lower the exposure
and change the
contrast. This made
the image clearer and
the colours brighter.
Next time I will make
sure I use a light meter
to get the exposure
right, rather than just
guessing.

4. Again I used Photoshop to
lower the exposure
however I couldn’t change
it too much or it made it too
dark and unnatural and
changed the feel of the
piece.

5. These are a few examples of photos I took, trying to capture life and light in a
more natural and fleeting way. I was able to us these pictures to experiment
with features on the camera such as ISO, exposure, the F-stop, focus etc.
I like this photo as you would initially think the main focus should be the people
however the viewer is drawn towards a point on the book shelf because of the red
triangle and how the bookshelf goes towards the point that is in focus. I like the
composition of this piece because of how it uses the rule of thirds with the girl being in
the bottom left third and the boy hardly even being in it. As it was a bright day with a lot
of natural lighting I set the exposure to 1/60 with the ISO being low at 100.

6. I like the angle this was taken at,
as it seemingly changes the
proportions of the building. I used
a lens with a wide focal range for
this photo as well as a low ISO.
This photo is slightly overexposed
as the ISO was too high or the
exposure was too long. However it
gives the photo a dull, faded feel
which feels quite vintage and fits
with the narrative of the image.

7. For this photo I used a lens with a
small focal range because I wanted
the picture to have a shallow depth
of field. I focused on the shoes and
had the ISO at 100 as it was shot
outside.
For this photo the focus wasn’t quite
right as I wanted the man to be in
focus however he is quite blurry.
This may be because I used the
wrong lens.

8. For this piece I like how the main
object is not fully in the frame.
However this focus is slightly out of
focus which slightly detracts from
the image. I also like how the image
is slightly distorted by the reflections
in the window. So even though
there is a lot of straight lines in this
piece it is distorted by the
ambiguous reflections.
This is my least favourite image
as it isn’t focused and the
exposure of the bunting is
wrong. This is because the
image has both black and white
predominantly in it so it’s hard to
get the exposure right for both of
these opposite colours.

9. This photo has a shallow
depth of field so I used a lens
with a small focal range. I like
how the colours in this image
are very monochrome which
contrasts with the vivid green
of the plant.
This picture is shot at a high
angle, looking down on the
‘fox’. This fits with the idea of
the fox being fleeting and easy
to miss. I used a lens with a
high focal range for this
image.

10. For this photo the ISO was right however
the F-stop too large or the exposure was
too long which meant the photo was over
exposure. However although it was
intentional it gives the picture a soft, faded
feel. I cropped the image to make the
composition more symmetrical as it fit the
image more.
Original
This photo again uses rule of
thirds with the focus being on the
building that is in the right third. I
choose to focus on the building
in the background rather than
the person in the foreground. I
choose to focus this way as it is
different to most conventional
images which makes the image
more interesting.

11. This is a close-up picture of an
art piece in Edinburgh. I like the
composition of this piece as it’s
ambiguous of what the image is
actually of. I also like how even
though it should be a bright
image the colours are washed
out a bit. I achieved this by
putting the ISO up to 200 to
make it lighter.
I like the angle of this photo
however it is slightly leaning to the
left. I used an ISO of 100 as it was
outside and I wanted the colours of
the posters to show up.

12. This picture has an interesting affect
as it was the start of the film. This
meant that half of the frame was
overexposed. The lighting is very
yellowy as it was shot inside with
artificial lighting. It gives a very
natural, almost prying on someone
feel because of the frame within a
frame and the way the lines from the
over exposed side of the film and
noticeboards break the picture up.
In contrast to a lot of the other
photos I took, the colours in
this image are very bright and
vivid, especially by having to
colours that opposite on the
colour wheel (green and red)
feature heavily in this photo.